• Denver can clinch a playoff spot with: a win or tie, a Miami loss or tie, or a Baltimore loss or tie.

• Kansas City can clinch a playoff spot with: a win and a Miami or Baltimore loss/tie; or a tie and a Miami or Baltimore loss.

• New England can clinch the AFC East with: a win and a Miami loss or tie; or a tie and a Miami loss.

• New England can clinch a playoff spot with: a win and a Baltimore loss or tie; or a tie and a Baltimore loss.

• Indianapolis can clinch the AFC South with: a win, or a Tennessee loss, or ties by both teams.

Arguably the two most important AFC games of Week 14 both involve North teams: Indianapolis at Cincinnati and Miami at Pittsburgh. The winner of the Colts-Bengals game would have a stranglehold on the No. 3 seed and would have the best chance of knocking New England from the two-spot.

If the Bengals lose that one, they could start feeling the heat from Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The Steelers' key game pits them against Miami, with both teams scrapping to stay in the wild-card picture.

Denver would have to lose at some point over the season's final four weeks to open the door on the No. 1 seed. If the Broncos simply win out, they'll claim home-field throughout the conference playoffs.

• Seattle can clinch the NFC West and a first-round bye with: a win or tie

• New Orleans can clinch a playoff spot with: a win and losses by Arizona, Dallas and Philadelphia; or a win, losses by Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, and an Arizona tie.

• Carolina can clinch a playoff spot with: a win and losses by Arizona, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.

Monstrous week in the NFC, culminating with Sunday night's Carolina-New Orleans showdown and then Monday's Dallas-Chicago game. That Cowboys-Bears game is but one of two important East-North crossovers -- Detroit at Philadelphia being the other. A Lions' win there would give them a 2-0 mark against the Cowboys and Eagles, thus putting them in the driver's seat for the No. 3 seed.

The loser of the Saints-Panthers game would be a game out in the division and could be just a game up in the wild-card race. Both Philadelphia and Arizona are lurking with five losses right now.